To:A. M. LEZHAVA[1]

Dictated:Dictated by phonePublished:First published in 1965 inCollected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 54.

      Printed from a typewritten copy.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      page448b.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

January 23, 1922

To Comrade Lezhava

Aboutthe project for Harriman’s entry, let me tell you
the following: unless I am mistaken, the main provision
of the Derutra contract was that we and the Germans have
an equal number of votes on the board. If Harriman joined
up with the Germans, i.e., as part of the German half, that
would, of course, be acceptable, but if the Germans plus
Harriman have two-thirds of the votes, and we—one-third,
that is, of course, unacceptable. In that case, a second
society should be set up alongside Derutra, in which we and
Harriman would have an equal number of votes. In these
circumstances, the combined operations of the two societies
would fully ensure our interests and those of Harriman.

[1]Writtenin connection with a telegraphic inquiry addressed to
the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade by B. S.
Stomonyakov, the R.S.F.S.R. trade representative in Germany.
Reporting that HAPAG (Hamburg-America Line) had come to an
arrangement with the Harriman concern on transferring to the
latter one-half of its interest in the German-Russian Transport
Company (Derutra), Stomonyakov asked whether this should be
agreed to. A. M. Lezhava, Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign
Trade, in a letter to Lenin on January 14, 1922, expressed the
opinion that this was advantageous not only for HAPAG but also
for Soviet Russia, because it was “a very major fact, the first
business agreement between us and American capital” (Central
Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the
C.P.S.U. Central Committee).

Derutra, the German-Russian Transport Company, was set up
on the basis of a protocol signed in Berlin on May 13, 1921, byStomonyakov and Director Theodor Ritter, a member of the
board of HAPAG (seeDokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, Vol. 
IV, Moscow, 1960, pp. 114–19).